A Drop in the Ocean by Jenni Ogden Published by She Writes Press on May 3rd 2016
Genres: Women's Fiction
Pages: 295
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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On her 49th birthday, Anna Fergusson, Boston neuroscientist and dedicated introvert, arrives at an unwanted crossroads when the funding for her research lab is cut. With her confidence shattered and her future uncertain, on impulse she rents a cabin for a year on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. However Turtle Island, alive with sea birds and nesting Green turtles, is not the retreat she expected. Here she finds love for the eccentric islanders who become her family; for Tom, the laid-back turtle whisperer; and for the turtles whose ancient mothering instincts move her to tears. But Anna finds that even on her idyllic drop in the ocean there is pain, and as the months fly past her dream for a new life is threatened by a darkness that challenges everything she has come to believe about the power of love. Evocative and thought-provoking, A Drop in the Ocean is a story about second chances and hard lessons learned in the gentlest of ways."
Anna Fergusson has been a research scientist for twenty-five years leading research on Huntington’s disease. On her forty-ninth birthday, she gets noticed that her funding is cut and she loses her lab. At a loss what to do an opportunity to spend a year on the great Barrier reef on island is brought to her attention. She takes it. Little does she know that her worlds will come full circle as she is challenged from to go outside of herself by the other islanders. Anna Fergusson is surprised at what she finds.
In an Oyster Shell – This was a very moving story, that will stay with the reader long after they are done.
The Pearls – As you have seen me point out in other reviews, I love coming of age stories in women who think their life has passed them by. This is an invigorating story about second chances. The premise is promising and delivers more than one could imagine.
The descriptions and the settings of small island life were just breath-taking. The author really delivered on taking the reader into the story. I loved the descriptions of the wildlife and the weather. I felt like I was taking my own vacation of the Great Barrier Reef.
The romance in this story was real and bittersweet. The inter-personal relationships were realistic and would leave one feeling raw with emotion. The author fit so much real life experience into this book told through all the characters. The romance was sweet but realistic leaving it a little bit bitter. That’s life sometimes. This author did an amazing job painting a real world relationship.
The Sand – This book was perfect.
5 Pearls!
About Jenni Ogden
Reading and writing fiction is my passion. Even when I was a neuropsychologist, I wrote books that, while true, were all about story—the courageous struggles and triumphs of people who had suffered brain disorders. (My text, Fractured Minds, first published in 1996 with a 2nd edition in 2005, is still popular, mainly, I think because it is full of stories about real people, as well as facts about neuropsychology and brain disorders. Trouble In Mind , my book for the general reader, was published in the USA in 2012 and in Australia in 2013. If you like Oliver Sacks’ stories about his patients, you will probably like this too.)
In 2008 I changed careers, so I could concentrate on writing novels, in the “bookclub/women’s fiction” genre, and usually with a psychological or medical theme. A Drop In The Ocean will be published in May, 2016 by She Writes Press in the US. I’d love you to sign up for my e-mail list and monthly newsletter (subscribe via my website, www.jenniogden.com). I write from our home on a beautiful and remote island off the north coast of New Zealand—islands seem to feature in my novels as well! John and I have four grown kids and five young grandchildren, all who love books and reading. Some of my favourite authors are Sebastian Faulks, Anna Quindlen, Pat Conroy, Richard North Patterson, Rumer Godden, Ann Hood, Lionel Shriver, Nicholas Evans, Deborah McKinley, Jodi Picoult, Lisa Genova, Ian McEwan.
